Page 63 of Sing with Me

“What do you think, Dad?” Elisa asked.

“Skye has a beautiful singing voice,” Diehl replied.

“I’m asking if you think I should play a musical instrument.”

“We have a piano in our house in Atlanta, but you were not interested.”

Skye decided to say something before Diehl dismissed his own daughter entirely. “You can’t carry a piano around.”

“You can carry a keyboard,” Diehl countered.

“It’s not the same. A real piano is acoustic. A keyboard is digital. Besides, it doesn’t always have weighted keys.”

“Listen to her, Dad,” Elisa said. “She knows what she’s talking about.”

“Maybe you could try several instruments and see which ones you like,” Skye said. “I’m sure you can ask your aunt what the options are—what they teach over there.”

“As long as it’s not drums or the tuba. Too loud. I’m not paying for music lessons for those,” Diehl said.

“How about the guitar?” Elisa sat up. Grass cuttings were in her hair.

“Why guitar?” Diehl asked.

Elisa pointed to Skye. “She plays the guitar. It’s a start. I might find something else I like.”

“Like the violin? Your aunt has a collection of old violins.”

“You think she will let me touch those?” Elisa rolled her eyes. “Grandpa Ned says she protects them like a hawk, whatever that means.”

“Yeah, you’ll have to get your own violin.” Diehl sat up.

“It’ll take forever to learn violin, I think.”

“I don’t care what instruments you want to play, Elisa, except those two I listed—plus anything too noisy. Let’s call the music studio and see what they have to say.”

“Good idea.” Skye got up. “Well, I have to go. Thank you for inviting me to the picnic. It was fun.”

Elisa tried to help Diehl to stand up. He pretended like he was stuck to the ground. “Help me, Skye. Dad’s a joker again.”

“Joker? I’ve never seen him joke.” Skye laughed. “He’s always so serious when I’m around.”

Diehl didn’t say a word, but he had a silly grin on his face, as Skye pulled one of his hands and Elisa pulled the other. He got up on his feet.

“You have grass cuttings on your hair,” he said as he brushed them off Elisa’s head and shoulders.

In the distance, Avery and Ethan were heading toward the back porch.

“Look what I found!” Ethan shouted. “A seashell!”

“Show me!” Elisa ran toward them.

They went inside the house.

Skye turned to Diehl, concerned. “You didn’t lock your back door?”

“It’s safe on the island.”

“There’s a reason your house has an alarm system.”

---